Kitchen range hoods are used above cooking surfaces to remove grease, common odors and hazardous gases created during the cooking process. There are a wide variety of range hoods available, but they typically comprise one or two openings formed in the bottom of the range hood and a comparable number of devices (motor and fan) for drawing the unwanted gases through the opening(s). In these designs, the fan and its respective motor are positioned above the opening and act to draw gases into the range hood through the opening.
The difficulty with both the single and the double opening designs is that not all of the gases rising from the cooking surface will be drawn through the opening(s). Some of the gases rising from the cooking surface flow around the sides or front of the range hood and remain present in the cooking environment.
A number of range hood designs have been developed to overcome this shortcoming. U.S. Pat. No. 5,448,987 teaches a range hood having two motors that has a lower plate spaced below the bottom of the range hood body. Locating members keep the lower plate spaced apart from the range hood so that the front, left and right sides of the lower plate form a smoke drawing space along with the bottom side of the range hood body. The lower plate is sloped from front to rear and has a hole located at its lowest point to allow any accumulated grease to drip through to a grease cup. Manual cleaning of the range hood is required. However, because the lower plate is fastened to the bottom of the range hood it is difficult to access the interior of the range hood for cleaning or other maintenance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,436 teaches a range hood smoke exhauster having a peripheral air drawing effect. A pair of drawing devices (motors and fans) is mounted above openings in the range hood bottom. A plate is secured to the hood, spaced below the hood bottom. The plate has two openings that are aligned with the openings in the hood bottom and a number of slots or grooves in the peripheral portion of the plate to allow smoke in the area of the periphery of the plate to be drawn into the range hood. This design also requires manual cleaning and suffers from deficiencies related to cleaning, as accessing the interior of the motor housing is difficult.
A further design is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,401,709. The range hood has side plates extending below the body, each side plate having an inclined surface. A deflecting plate has a horizontal portion shaped in parallel with the bottom face of the range hood and an inclined portion aligning with the inclined surface of the side plates. The deflecting plate is spaced from the bottom face of the hood body so as to form an inlet port at the front and both sides and to form a suction passage. This range hood also requires manual cleaning of grease-laden surfaces. As with the previous designs, this cleaning is made more difficult by the presence of the deflecting plate, which interferes with access to the range hood interior.
Therefore, while each of the range hoods taught respectively in the '987, '436 and '709 patents provides a peripheral air drawing effect, they all require manual cleaning of the interior surfaces. Given the designs, this manual cleaning is very difficult to accomplish.
Accordingly, it is an object of an embodiment of the invention to provide a dual motor range hood adapted for drawing in air about the periphery of the range hood bottom.
It is a further object of an embodiment of the invention to provide a range hood adapted for drawing in air about the periphery of the range hood bottom that is self-cleaning.
Not all aspects of the invention necessarily address such objects. Other objects of the invention will be apparent from the description that follows.